The World Economic Forum in Davos will host a plenary session on drug policy on Thursday, January 23. This is the first time that the prestigious gathering has given such prominence to the issue.

The panel, moderated by Univision anchor Enrique Acevedo, is called “The Drugs Dilemma: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business.” Former UN head Kofi Annan, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth and Texas Governor Rick Perry will be on the panel.

“I’ve long wondered what it would take to persuade the Davos organizers to put drug policy on the main stage of the forum,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “They clearly were moved by the fact that some of the world’s most distinguished statesmen, including former UN Secretary Kofi Annan and former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, are now deeply committed to ending the global war on drugs and pushing the envelope of drug decriminalization. Drug policy reform as a global political movement has come of age.”

In recent years, debate and political will for drug policy reform has gained unprecedented momentum in many parts of the world, especially Latin America and the U.S.